Down in the Rockies
by Kurisutaru.Nikooru.Kikuchi
Summary: The guys are headed to Utah on vacation when an engine problem causes the plane to crash.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Vin and JD laughed as they entered the airport heading for the private jet that would take them and the others to Utah for their vacation. They had just got done with a big case and was in need of a vacation. Chris and Buck were waiting outside the plane and Josiah, Nathan and Ezra were just climbing out of the plane after stowing their bags on board the plane.

"About time you guys got here?" Buck yelled at the two youngest. "What took you so long?"

JD looked at Vin and they both busted out laughing once more. "Vin got held up by a young lady."

"Hey, her friend was trying to get to you," Vin said shoving JD away from him.

"Enough fooling around," Chris said. "Stow your stuff and get settled in the plane. We need to go."

As they got onboard, four men watched from the hangar.

"Did you sabotage the planes engines?" a voice said from behind them.

"Yes sir, Mr. Ventura," one of them said turning around. "They won't get away with putting Mr. Tajos in prison. As soon as the plane leaves, we'll follow them in the helicopter and as soon as the plane crashes, we land and get rid of the survivors."

"Quite right," the leader said.

Amos Ventura was Victor Tajos lead man and was out for revenge on the Mag 7 for putting Tajos in prison after a successful bust of their leaders mansion. They watched as the plane took off and they hurried over and got in the waiting helicopter and followed them, but not close enough for them to detect them. Soon they were flying over the Rockies. Chris looked up as the co-pilot came in through the pilot's compartment and stopped in front of them.

"We're having some problems with the engines," he said to them. "We've contacted a small airport about an half hour from here and we're going to see if we can make it there before the engines give out."

Chris nodded and the co-pilot disappeared back into the cockpit. The others heard the words spoken to Chris and immediately they put their seatbelts back on. Not long after that, the plane started to buck around. In the cockpit, the pilots were trying to keep the engines on line but nothing was working.

"We're going to have to land this plane," the pilot said. "See if you can find somewhat of a clear space to land."

The co-pilot started looking out the window searching for a place to land but it was no use. The Rockies didn't appear to have any.

"Passengers, we're going to try and do a emergency landing," the pilot said over the comm.. "Please fasten your seatbelts and hang on. It might be a rough landing."

Near the back of the plane, Vin and JD exchanged worried glances after the announcement. Ezra, Nathan and Josiah were sitting two rows above them and two rows behind Chris and Buck and they all glanced at each other in worry. They couldn't believe this was happening.

"Mayday, mayday! This is ATF jet 247-8B. We are going down somewhere over the Rocky Mountains. All engines are down. Our heading is . . ."

The last thing they remember is a tall tree coming out of nowhere and hitting the side of the plane with a lot of force, clipping one wing completely off, sending them spiraling into the rough terrain below them and everything went black.

ooOOoo

In Denver, Travis was sitting in his office going over some paperwork when the phone rang and he picked it up.

"AD Travis," he said to the caller. "What? . . . What do you mean you lost contact with the plane! Where at? All right, I'll be on the next flight."

He hung up and then hastily called Mary's number to say that he had to cancel their dinner date.

"I'm going with you," Mary said after she heard what had happened.

"You don't need to," Travis said to her. "We'll find them."

"I'm not going to stay here, not being able to do anything," Mary said. "I'm going. Pick me up in an half hour."

Travis knew it was no use to argue with Mary so he said he would pick her up and hung the phone up. He couldn't believe this was happening to his best ATF team.

ooOOoo

Buck was the first to come around in the plane. It seems like everything hurt. He felt something wet on his face and he reached up to wipe it off and pain flew through his fingers on his right hand. Opening his eyes, he slowly looked around his surroundings. Looking at his fingers, he saw that three of them were swollen and bruised, probably broken. He reached up with his left hand and wiped the wetness away and when he looked at his hand, he saw blood. Reaching back up, he felt a cut over his left eye. He was able to unbuckle his seatbelt and got gingerly to his feet.

"Why does this always happen when we go on vacation?" he asked as he brushed the dirt off of his jeans with his left hand.

He looked to his left where Chris had been and found that Chris' seatbelt had broke and he was on the floor near the wall, unconscious.

"Chris," Buck said hurrying over to his friend.

He felt for a pulse and found one and it was beating strong. He patted Chris on the shoulder and went to find the others. As he straightened up he looked toward the back and saw that most of the tail section was missing. Looking into the cockpit, he saw that the two pilots were slumped in their seats. Finding no pulse on either man, he turned to find the others.

He heard a groan not far from him and he found Ezra trying to get to his feet, shaking his head. He saw that Ezra had a nasty looking cut near his temple and a knot forming underneath that.

"You okay Ez?" Buck asked helping the conman to his feet.

"Dandy, Mr. Wilmington," Ezra said. He took out his handkerchief and wiped the blood off his face, grimacing as it hit the knot and cut. "Find any of the others?"

"Chris is unconscious up front. Pilots are dead," Buck said. "Check on Nathan and Josiah. I'm going to try and find JD and Vin."

Ezra looked toward the tail section of the plane and was shocked to see nothing but a hole where their two youngest members was sitting when they left.

"Oh my God!" Ezra said and then snapped out of it as Buck snapped his fingers. "I'll find those two. Check on Nathan and Josiah, then help Chris."

Ezra nodded and moved toward Josiah who was closest. Vin slowly came to and it felt like his head was splitting in two. He felt something pinning his right leg to the ground and when he went to sit up, a sharp pain flew up his leg and he nearly collapsed once again. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a tree branch on top of his leg. The branch was thick and he knew he wouldn't be able to get it off by himself. As he looked for a way to get it off, he saw JD laying not far from him. Both legs were pinned underneath the same branch and he could see that some jagged parts were sticking in his legs. He couldn't tell how deep but he could tell that they were probably deep and that JD had lost a good amount of blood.

"Vin! JD!" Buck's voice was news to his ears.

"Over here Buck," Vin tried to yell, but his head hurt too much to yell too loud.

Buck hurried over and bent down beside him.

"How are you doing?" he asked surveying the damage.

"Just peachy," Vin said sarcastically. "Think you can help get my leg out from under this tree branch."

"Not with these broken fingers," Buck said. "We'll wait to see how injured the others are before we try. Seen JD?"

Vin nodded his head over in JD's direction and Buck paled at the sight of his young friend.

"Hang tight," he said to Vin and hurriedly walked over to where JD laid. Laying his hand on JD's neck, he found a pulse but it was weak.

Back at the plane, Ezra had found Nathan and Josiah okay, with no major injuries just some minor ones. Nathan made his way to where Chris was to find him coming around.

"Steady there Chris," Nathan said steadying Chris as he tried to sit up.

He helped him sit up and Chris gasped in pain and clutched his ribs. Nathan reached over and carefully prodded his ribs and Chris gasped in pain once more.

"Looks like you busted few ribs there Chris," Nathan said and took the first-aid it and his medical bag from Josiah. "Let's tape 'em up for ya."

Taking a broad pad from his bag, he placed it over Chris' ribs and then wound tape around the pad making sure it wasn't real tight.

"Let's get you out of this plane," Nathan said to him.

Ezra and Josiah helped Chris out of the plane and sat him down on the ground, propped against a tree. While Ezra stayed with him, the others went to find where Buck had went to. Buck looked up from where he kneeled beside JD as the others approached.

"You okay Buck?" Nathan asked kneeling beside JD's prone form.

"I think I broke a couple of fingers on my right hand," Buck said. "But don't worry about me, JD and Vin are trapped under this branch."

Nathan wanted to dress JD's injuries before they tried to move the branch off of him.

"Josiah, find me some branches to use for splints," Nathan said to the big man. "Looks like JD's got a broken forearm."

Five minutes later, Josiah returned with about six good branches. Taking JD's right arm, he placed it gently across his chest. Using gauze to pad the branches, he placed them on either side of JD's arms. He used two handkerchiefs to tie the splints.

"We need to try and lift this branch straight off his legs. The wounds are probably gonna bleed more and we need to be ready to try and stop the flow of the bleeding," Nathan said to them. "Buck, go stay with Chris and send Ezra over here. You can't do anything with those broken fingers."

Buck nodded and headed back to where Chris and Ezra was. Soon Ezra joined them and they got ready to move the branch off of JD's legs.

"Do you think you'll be able to get your leg out from underneath the branch once we get it off?" Nathan asked Vin, who nodded. "As soon as we have the branch off, I'll slide JD away."

They counted to three and Josiah and Ezra were able to lift the branch far enough so that Nathan could slide JD away and Vin was able to get his leg out of the way also.

"Vin, I'll be there in just a minute as soon as I dress JD's injuries," Nathan said to the sharpshooter who nodded. "We need to move him over near Chris so I can work better. After moving him, come back and help Vin."

JD didn't move at all as they carefully maneuvered him over near where Chris and Buck was sitting. Josiah left to go back and help Vin while Nathan took care of JD.

"Buck, see if you can find anything to elevate his legs," Nathan said to the ladies' man.

Buck returned not long after with two pillows and some blankets. They put the pillows underneath JD's legs. Using a knife, Nathan cut JD's pants legs to uncover the puncture wounds.

"Doesn't look like the wounds are too deep," Nathan said as he examined the wounds.

Using compresses he applied firm pressure directly on the wounds which weren't too far apart from each other and soon the bleeding slowed. He then applied pressure dressings on each one. After checking the splint on his forearm, he turned to Vin to access his injuries.

"Okay, we need to stabilize this leg," Nathan said. "It's going to hurt."

"Just do it," Vin said.

They were able to get his shoe off his foot. Taking a firm hold of Vin's foot he pulled slowly and straighten the leg. The pain from that was too much for Vin and he passed out. Using the last two branches they placed it on both sides of his leg and used bandannas to tie it off. Nobody even paid attention to the sound of a helicopter as it passed overhead.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Set down at the nearest clear land," Ventura said to the pilot. "We'll hike from there and find them."

"Yes sir," the pilot said and started to look for a clear patch of land to put the helicopter down on.

At the crash site, they had covered both Vin and JD with blankets to keep them warm and Nathan tended to the others. He gave Chris a shot of morphine for the pain and to help him sleep a little and he soon fell asleep. Using tape, he taped Buck's broken fingers together. He cleaned Ezra and Buck's cuts above their eyes.

"I'll keep watch out for anything first," Josiah said to Nathan. "Get some sleep. I'll wake you if JD or Vin wakes up."

Nathan nodded in agreement and settled down on some blankets and soon fell asleep. Soon Josiah was the only one awake. He sat on a stump not far from the downed plane and kept watch out for any predators or any signs of rescuers. Tiredness soon started taking over and he started nodding off when he heard someone moving around near him. Looking over, he saw that JD was starting to come around. He got off the stump and hurried over to the youngest.

"Take it easy JD," he said putting a hand on JD's shoulder.

JD felt a little warm and when he felt the forehead, he found he was starting to burn up. Cursing under his breath, he hurried over to where Nathan laid and shook him awake.

"JD's waking up," he told Nathan. "And he's starting to burn up with a fever."

Nathan got to his feet and hurried over to where JD was. "We need to find some water to keep his fever down," Nathan said to Josiah.

"Me and Ezra will go and see if we can find a stream or something," Josiah said as Ezra came over to see what was going on.

They entered the plane to look for anything to put water in and soon left with bottles and a couple of canteens they found and went looking for any source of water. Nathan watched them leave and then turned his attention back to JD, who was watching him through pain-filled hazel eyes.

"Hurts . . ." his whispered voice said to him.

"I know JD," Nathan said retrieving his medical bag and setting up a shot of morphine. He knew he shouldn't give JD more than one shot, but it will help ease his pain. He gave JD the shot and soon JD's eyes slid closed and he went back to sleep.

"He okay?" Buck asked as Nathan came over to check on him and Vin.

"He's running a slight fever," Nathan said to him. "I gave him a shot of morphine and it should help."

Buck just nodded as he checked his fingers and loosened the tape a little bit because his fingers were turning a little blue and then moved to check on Vin. He checked the splints on his leg and found nothing wrong. He checked to see if he was running a fever and found he was just a little bit. He checked on Chris and found he was awake and watching the scene.

"How you feeling?" Nathan asked as he checked his ribs.

"Hurts but not as much as before," Chris said grimacing as he sat up. "That morphine really helped."

While Nathan waited on Ezra and Josiah to return, the checked on JD's legs and saw they were a little swollen and knew he had to clean the wounds and then rewrap them. He didn't have long to wait as Ezra and Josiah returned with the bottles and canteens filled with water from a river not far away. They put a cloth on Vin and JD's forehead and then proceeded to help Nathan tend to JD's legs. The cloth stuck to some of the dried blood but it wasn't hard to free them. Using clean water and a clean handkerchief he dabbed the wounds gently and finally the dried blood was gone and the wounds were clear of dirt and rocks. He used clean clothes to rewrap JD's legs and then sat back.

Travis and Mary arrived in a private airstrip at the foot of the Rockies and was met by the Search and Rescue leader, Jackson Buehlmann, who greeted him warmly.

"I see you were able to get here so quickly," Jackson said shaking Travis' hand. "We believe that their plane went down somewhere over the Rockies. We're heading over there now to start the search and we'll split into teams once we rendezvous with the other teams.

They climbed into a SUV and started toward their destination. An hour later, they came to the base camp they had set up at the foot of the Rockies. After all the teams got their assignments, Jackson turned to Travis and Mary.

"We'll be going up in the helicopter," he told them. "It'll probably be better to see the crash site from up in the air."

They headed over to the helicopter and was soon airborne. Ventura and his men had landed and was hiking up the mountain in search of the team.

"We need to split up," Ventura said to them. "We'll cover more ground that way. If you find them, radio us and we'll meet up."

With that, the six men split up into two teams and set off in different directions. Ventura and his men headed to north while the other three headed south. At the site, Vin's eyes fluttered open and the first thing he saw was Chris sitting beside him.

"Hey cowboy," Vin said hoarsely. His voice was dry.

Chris lifted Vin's head far enough for him to get a drink of water from the canteen he had in his hand then laid his head back down on the blanket they had folded underneath his head.

"How you feeling Vin?"

"Like I've been run over by a truck," Vin said. "How's JD?"

"Sleeping," Chris said looking over at the youngest. "He woke up once but was in too much pain. Nathan gave him a shot of morphine and he went back to sleep. You in any pain?"

"Some," Vin said. "But it's not too bad right now."

Chris took the cloth off of Vin's forehead and wet it once more and replaced it, since he was still running a slight fever. Josiah and Ezra had managed to find some food in the ruined plane; mostly candy bars that JD and Vin had brought along. Also they found some sandwiches and some chips. Chris was passed two sandwiches and two bags of chips for him and Vin to share. They were able to prop Vin up against a tree and they started to eat. They would help get some food into JD once he woke. After filling his stomach, Vin drifted back to sleep. Night soon fell and they all got ready for the night. Josiah was able to get a small fire going and they laid around it and soon dropped off to sleep one by one. In the helicopter, the pilot turned to Jackson and shook his head.

"We're going to have to go back to base camp," Jackson told Travis and Mary. "It's getting too dark and the fuels low. We'll start early tomorrow morning."

"Are you sure you don't want to push on?" one said to him.

"We won't be able to see much in the dark," Ventura said. "We'll get up early and press on further."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

A huge clap of thunder was what woke JD up the next morning. He didn't really like thunderstorms and it startled him. He nearly jumped but the pain from his legs and arm stopped him.

"Easy JD," Buck said placing a hand on JD's shoulder. "It's just thunder."

JD nodded and settled back down on the blankets. Buck covered him back up with the blanket that had flew off of him when he tried to sit up.

"Try to get him to eat something, Buck," Nathan called over.

He helped JD sit up and handed him a sandwich after unwrapping it. He finished it and took a swig of water from the canteen Buck handed to him. The storm continued, threatening rain.

"I think we should move everyone into the plane where it will be dry," Chris said as he walked over holding his ribs, which was starting to hurt a lot more again.

They agreed to that and started getting everything back in the plane. They got Vin to his feet and with help from Josiah and Nathan they were able to get him on the plane and stretched across three seats. By the time they got him settled he was sweating and in extreme pain. Nathan gave him a small shot of morphine and he soon drifted off to sleep. Nathan decided to give a small amount of morphine to JD before moving him, since he was in so much pain as it was. Josiah and Nathan lifted him up and carried him into the plane. Ezra followed with the pillows. They laid him in the row behind Vin and propped his legs back up on the pillows and covered him with a blanket. The others followed suit and was soon sitting around the plane. Chris started to doze off when a hand dropped onto his shoulder, startling him making him jump and he gasped in pain.

"Sorry Chris," Nathan said. "Didn't mean to startle you. Just wanted to see how you was doing?"

"Feeling a lot better," Chris said catching his breath. "Just don't do that again."

Nathan checked his ribs and went to check on Vin and JD and Chris drifted off to sleep. At the base camp, Travis and Mary watched as the storm clouds started to move in and saw no hope in anyone going up in any plane or helicopter to look for them.

"They're not going to go up in this weather, Orrin," Mary said to her father-in-law. "Why can't we go off by ourselves?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Mary," Orrin said. "With just the two of us we won't get too much ground covered."

"What if you had more help?" a voice behind them said.

Turning, they saw ATF Teams 3-5 standing there.

"What are you doing here, Jack?" Orrin said Jack Demina, leader of Team 3. "Go on back to Denver."

"We want to help find Chris and the others, Orrin," Amelia Demarest, leader of Team 4 said to their boss. "We just couldn't sit around the office while they're missing somewhere in the mountains."

Travis grinned and nodded in appreciation of their help. Knowing that Jackson wouldn't want them going off by theirselves, especially with the approaching storm, they decided to go off on their own.

"Travis, I just wanted to let you know before we leave that Amos Ventura is out for revenge on Chris and the boys for what happened to Victor Tajos," Jack said to Orrin. "They were last seen heading for the airport not long before they left for their vacation in Utah."

"So, they're probably looking for the guys also," Orrin said. "I just hope they aren't the ones that caused their plane to crash. If so, they're probably tracking them down ready to exact revenge on all seven."

After getting their duffel bags and supplies, they set out, managing not to be seen by Jackson or any of the others and headed into the mountains in search of their friends. Meanwhile, Ventura and the two men with him were about two miles from the crash site. They could see smoke coming from somewhere but couldn't actually pinpoint the direction or how far.

"Adams, what is your position?" Ventura said into the walkie talkie.

"Not far from you," Adams said back. "I see you from where we are. We're heading in your direction now. We think we know where the plane went down."

He switched the talkie off and they waited. Ten minutes later Adams and the other two came in view and they hurried over to them.

"We've seen smoke about two miles away from here," Adams said. "From where we was, we think we saw a part of the plane and he could tell that a lot of trees were down."

"Good, let's head out," Ventura said and they started in the direction that they was already headed in.

Soon they came in sight of the wrecked plane. They didn't see anybody but as they got close they heard voices from inside the plane.

"Let's do this," Ventura said and they got their guns and rifles out and made sure they were loaded.

In the plane, Nathan was checking JD's legs and it looked like the bleeding had completely stopped this time. He was still burning up with a fever and he put another wet cloth on his forehead. Vin's fever was doing a lot better but he kept a wet cloth on his forehead for now. Everyone was getting ready to settle down since they couldn't do anything else. Nathan went in search of his medical bag which he was certain he had left outside. Ventura and the others watched as Nathan came out of the plane and went looking for something.

"Deal with him," Ventura said to Adams.

Nathan was bent down grabbing his medical bag when a arm circled his neck and pulled him upright and he dropped the bag.

"Don't move," Adams said as he swung Nathan around to face the others.

"In the plane," Ventura ordered.

When the guy let go of Nathan, he bent down and grabbed the medical bag off the ground and walked toward the plane. The others, except Vin, JD and Chris who were still asleep, looked up as Nathan was shoved into the plane.

"What the heck," Josiah said getting to his feet.

"Sit back down right now, Sanchez," Ventura said entering after Nathan and trained his gun on Josiah.

Looking around he spotted Chris laying on a row of seats and crossed over to him and nudged him with the butt of his rifle, jerking Chris awake making him clutch his ribs in pain. Ventura reached down and pulled him to his feet by his hair and threw him to the floor. Chris yelled in extreme pain as he painfully hit the floor hitting his ribs hard on the floor.

"Leave him alone Ventura!" Buck yelled as he leapt forward to grab Ventura.

Ventura turned and slammed the butt of the rifle into Buck's stomach, taking the breath out of him and he doubled over in pain.

"I'll do anything I want to do, Wilmington!"

Ezra helped Buck to his feet after his caught his breath. Chris was still on the floor, in too much pain to move.

"Tie their hands behind their back," Ventura said to the others. "We move out tomorrow at first light."

Since Vin and JD weren't going to give them any problems, they left them alone. Nathan stayed close to them just in case they needed anything. Adams and Ventura remained inside the plane while the others stayed outside to keep an eye out for anyone.


End file.
